


Atlas

by Tashilover



Category: August: Osage County
Genre: Ableist Language, Incest, Slut shaming (?), Talk of Abortion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:58:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1359910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tashilover/pseuds/Tashilover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It never ends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atlas

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of heavy talking here, so please take warning.
> 
> EDIT: Also, I just remember (I only saw the movie once) didn't the character Ivy got a hysterectomy? Kinda blows my entire fic out of the water, doonit? Oh well.

The apartment was small, but modest. It reminded Barbara of the apartment she lived in when she was a young woman going to college. She remembered the hot summer days, the cranky, loud neighbors, and the utter feeling of freedom rushing through her. For the first time in her life she was out of the house and away from home- away from her mother. It was such a liberating feeling and Barbara could feel it washing over her again as she stood there. "You have a beautiful home," she said, meaning every word. It was not small talk.

"Thank you," Little Charles said with a grin. It faltered when he noticed Ivy did not share the same enthusiasm as he did. "Er... would you like a drink? We have a couple of Pepsis in the fridge..."

He went to the kitchen, which was only a foot away from the living room. Ivy stopped him and said, "Charles, the bus comes in a few minutes. You should get going or else you'll be late for work."

Little Charles- Barbara couldn't even get rid of the _Little_ from her own head. You can't break of a habit like that easily after thirty years- paused for a second, seeing the clock and realizing she was right. "Oh! Oh, um... right. I'll... I'll get my coat."

He scrambled to grab his coat, oblivious to the way Barbara and Ivy stared at each other. There were no smiles, no shared jokes, no knowing glances. When Ivy first answered the door, only Little Charles had hugged Barbara in hello.

"I'll see you tonight," Little Charles said to Barbara as he shrugged on his over-sized coat. "We'll go out for dinner. Bye, Ivy."

He leaned in to kiss her.

Barbara stiffened, not wishing to see, but Ivy turned her head just slight at the last second, and Little Charles ended up kissing her cheek instead.

The sudden turning of her head didn't go unnoticed by him. He pulled back, flattening his lips inside his mouth, eyes hurt. "Um... see you," he said awkwardly, then dashed out the door.

Once the door was closed, Ivy kept staring with the same expression. Barbara waited, letting the silence hang between them. In an apartment building like this, the only sounds that could be heard was water rushing through the pipes or a TV playing too loud in the background. The silence went on for so long, Barbara heard an entire scene play out from an episode of _Gilligan's Island_.

Finally, Barbara had enough. "Okay, this is bullshit," she snapped. "You invited me here. So either start talking or stop staring."

Ivy blinked, breaking eye contact. "I don't know where to start," she said, taking a seat. The chair she sat in was such an ugly little thing that looked like it came from the early sixties. How much of this furniture did Ivy and Little Charles buy from local garage sales? "I didn't tell him," she said. "About... you know."

"I'd gathered," Barbara said. "Do you plan to tell him?"

"I... No. He doesn't need to know. It would... it would kill him, Barb. You know how he looks up to his dad and to find out he's not _actually_..."

"Then what's going on? You said I would never see you again, and for God's sake, Ivy, I thought you meant it. Then out of nowhere, you call me and ask me to come to New York-"

She stopped in mid-sentence when Ivy's face suddenly _crumbled_. This wasn't like back at their parents' house when she realized the family secret, this was a different devastation. Tears ran down her red face, and she clutched at her shirt as she bit out the next words.

"I'm pregnant."

Barbara took a step back. "Jesus Christ," she whispered. Then, in a louder voice, "Jesus Christ, _Jesus Christ_ , Ivy! How long have you known?"

"A month," she said.

"Fucking hell! Does Little Charles know?"

"No."

Barbara couldn't believe it. She grasped her hair, tugging at it so hard she could feel some of the strands ripping out of her skull. "Is that why you called me down here? _To have me tell Little Charles of our family's dirty secrets?_ "

"I'm not keeping it."

"... What?"

Ivy shook her head, her face disgusted. "What the HELL is wrong with our family?" She hissed as she wiped her face with the hem of her sleeve. "We have a mother who guilt-trips everybody she has ever met. We have a dead, cheating father. We have a sister who still acts like she's twenty-two, then there's you... you, who is so bitter and unhappy in her own life, she blames everyone else-"

"Fuck you," Barbara said without any real bite to it.

"-and then there's me. I _fucked_ my own brother. My little brother. Barb, I can't keep this baby. You read it all the time in magazines; incestuous kids are born deformed. _Retarded_. Can you imagine how Charles would take to that? He'll think it's his fault!"

"What the hell do you want me to do about it?"

"You're a pharmacist. Can you..." Ivy licked her lips. "...can you give me a _pill_ or something-"

"Oh GOD," Barbara moaned. "This is why you called me down here? _To help you abort the baby_?"

"What other choice do I have, Barb? I just spent the last five years taking care of our mother! I can't _do that_ again! Not to a child, especially not to a child who could be in a wheelchair for the rest of their life!"

Barbara's head was spinning. A part of her was trying to pull up the abortion laws from her memories, but this was New York and their laws were different and for all she knew if she participated in this she could committing murder and oh god did she want to commit murder for the sake of her sister who wasn't smart enough to use a fucking condom-

"I... I have to think about this," she said. "I have to... give me a few hours, okay?"

"Okay," Ivy said in a small voice. "Please, Barb. Please."


End file.
